Make India Asbestos Free

Journal of Ban Asbestos Network of India (BANI). Asbestos Free India campaign of BANI is inspired by trade union leader Purnendu Majumadar. It has been working for last 17 years. It works with peoples movements, doctors, researchers and activists besides trade unions, human rights, environmental, consumer and public health groups. BANI demands criminal liability for companies and medico-legal remedy for victims. For Details: krishnagreen@gmail.com

Thursday, October 30, 2008

India opposes putting asbestos in hazardous list

Note: R.H. Khwaja, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Environment & Forests has betrayed the Indians and compromised their health to protect asbestos industry at the UN meeting of the Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent (PIC) Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade in Rome.As an act of manifest sophistry and insincerity, Khwaja, argued strategies for global chemicals management must respect nations’ sovereign right to use chemicals for the national good, taking into account both socio-economic and environmental concerns..

Supporters of corporate barbarism like Russia, India, Pakistan and Canada compelled the UN conference TO miss the opportunity to list chrysotile (white) asbestos for the fourth time.

Public interests groups have emphasized that the Convention is about protecting health and the environment, not trade. Being a Convention about hazardous chemicals trade, it is in the nature of the traders to move in minimal steps with criminal callousness. Barry Castleman & members of the Rotterdam Convention Alliance (ROCA) demonstrated at the FAO rooftop to raise awareness on the banning of chrysotile asbestos. (Photos courtesy: ROCA)

Gopal Krishna

U.N. hazardous chemical treaty faces deadlock at meeting in Rome“Government position is untenable”

NEW DELHI: Reacting to the “anti-worker and anti-science” position of few “reckless governments” that has created a stalemate for the U.N. hazardous chemicals treaty, the Ban Asbestos Network of India (BANI) has accused Canadian, Russian and Indian governments of turning a blind eye towards the poisonous atmosphere around the asbestos factories and the dangers it poses to the health and life of citizens. This was being done just to pander to the industry’s hunger for profit at human cost, it said.

“The Indian government has betrayed the public interest by taking an unpardonable position that endangers each and every citizen of the country at the fourth meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP-4) of the U.N.’s Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure (PIC) for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade in Rome,” a statement issued by BANI said here.

As a consequence, the hazardous chemicals treaty faces deadlock in the Rome meeting. A very important proposal was placed to wriggle out of the situation where chemicals that meet the Convention’s criteria but on which the COP fails to reach consensus about listing in Annex III as has happened in the case of chrystolite asbestos aend endosulphan. Chemical and chrystolite asbestos industries and countries like India, Russia and Canada are opposed to the inclusion of these chemicals in the list although they meet the criteria to be listed as hazardous chemical. Fearing certain defeat, Canada stated that introducing voting for Annex III would create a dual system that could weaken the Convention. The Indian government took an untenable position at a U.N. meeting in Rome by opposing the inclusion of chrystolite asbestos in the U.N.’s hazardous chemical list under the “influence” of asbestos industry and Canadian and Russian governments. A number of countries, including some that continue to mine and export chrystolite asbestos, blocked its addition to the PIC list when the Parties to the Convention last met in 2006 and further opposition is expected at next week’s meeting, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

India is the largest importer and consumer of Canadian and Russian asbestos to the detriment of its citizens and workers.

When the matter came up for discussion on October 28, head of the Indian delegation R.H. Khawaja, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Environment opposed the listing of chrystolite asbestos and endosulphan in the PIC list for hazardous chemicals and pesticides.

The Indian government’s delegation acted under tremendous pressure from the representatives of Indian chemical industry and chrystolite asbestos industry who dictated government’s official position, the BANI statement said.

Health Matters

Ban on Asbestos is a Must

A study in a peer-reviewed journal had earlier estimated that there could be more than 6,000 workers affected by asbestosis (an untreatable lung ailment) and another 600 suffering at the minimum from asbestosis-related lung cancer in India at present. Occupational cancer from asbestos, the disease caused by emissions at the work place, poses an increasingly serious health problem. But the subject has attracted relatively little attention from industry, labour, public health bodies or the medical profession. Asbestos is one of the single largest sources of occupational cancer. Indian polticians are acting as if they are bonded workers of asbestos industry.

World Trade Center, New York collapsed Thousands of tons of asbestos became airborne.

Back in 1981, there was research coming out that Asbestos was cancer causing and this ad was in rebuttal to that research touting the benefits of using Asbestos. The text over the Twin Towers states, "When the Fire Alarm Went Off, It Took Two Hours to Evacuate New York's World Trade Center." I do not need to remind anyone of the images of September 11th and this ad. The copy below the ad goes on to mention all of the places that Asbestos was used in the World Trade Center. I can not not think of all of the innocent victims in the area that were exposed to all of the dust, smoke and inherent asbestos that was in the air after the buildings collapsed. The cloud of smoke went across the entire city and potentially exposed hundreds of thousands of individuals to asbestos. Hopefully there can be a cure or treatment for Mesothelioma before all of these potential victims are diagnosed.

Ban Use of Asbestos Products

Apex Court allocates meagre compensation for asbetsos victims

In 1995, the Supreme Court of India fixed Rs 1 lakh compensation amount and identified National Institute of Occupational Health (NIOH) as the final authority to certify asbestosis cases. Compensations are given through the Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC). Two workers in Ahmedabad Electricity Company diagnosed as having asbestosis by NIOH have been compensated by Gujarat High Court. Twenty-five workers in asbestos jointing and packing industry at Mumbai were compensated by the Special medical board of ESIC. The court ruled that the industrial units must maintain a health record of every worker up to a minimum period of 40 years; insure workers under the Employees State Insurance Act or Workmen’s Compensation Act and give health coverage to every worker.

Asbestos Victims

Every day estimated 30 deaths in India is under way due to the ongoing trade and use of white asbestos. 'Asbestos' in Greek means 'indestructible'. Greeks called asbestos the 'magic mineral'. Asbestos is a generic term, referring usually to six kinds of naturally occuring mineral fibres. Of these six, three are used more commonly. Chrysotile is the most common, accounts for almost 90 per cent of the asbestos used in the industry, but it is not unusual to encounter Amosite or Crocidolite as well. Though Crocidolite asbestos is banned in India, it can still be found in old insulation material, old ships that come from other countries for wrecking in India. All types of asbestos tend to break into very tiny fibre, almost microscopic. In fact, some of them may be up to 700 times smaller than human hair. Because of their small size, once released into the air, they may stay suspended in the air for hours or even days. Asbestos fibres are virtually indestructible. They are resistant to chemicals and heat, and are very stable in the environment. They do not evaporate into air or dissolve in water, and they do not break down over time. Because of its high durability and with tensile strength asbestos has been widely used inconstruction and insulation materials - it has been used in over 3,000 different products. Where do we use it? In India, asbestos is used in manufacture of pressure and non pressure pipes used for water supply, sewage, irrigation and drainage system in urban and rural areas, asbestos textiles, laminated products, tape, gland packing, packing ropes, brake lining and jointing used in core sector industries such as automobile, heavy equipment, petro-chemicals, nuclear power plants, fertilizers, thermal power plants, transportation, defence.

Vladimir Putin government set up a panel of experts to give an opinion on a possible Russian asbestos ban. The panel’s report gave an impassioned defence of asbestos use. Dr Izmerov gave a presentation on "Chrysotile. Russian Experience in Occupational Health" at the International Conference on Chrysotile in Montreal during May 23 - 24, 2006. Russia exported 152, 820 MT of chrysotile asbestos to India in 2006.